Drug overdose deaths continue to plague region

November 22, 2013 by Elvia Malagon Northwest Indiana Times

Just outside downtown Valparaiso, Steve sits in the living room of the Respite House and names more than a handful of his close friends and acquaintances who all died from heroin overdoses in the past few years.

Steve, who asked that his last name not be used, is back for the third time at Respite House, trying to get clean. He's seen the deaths and knows the dangers of heroin. Yet it somehow keeps luring him back.

"It's like a love affair gone bad," he said. "You get with them and break up, but you can't stop thinking about them."

Just last year, four men who once sat in that same living room died of drug overdoses.